The following may sound like marketing “heresy.”
But I swear it’s true.
And, if you are nervous about not having a ton of testimonials for your product or service, I think you will find it quite helpful.
Anyway, here’s a question I just got and my answer:
QUESTION: “Ben, I am just entering my market and my product is brand new. I have a great product but I only have a few customers and no testimonials so far. Should I wait until I get more testimonials before launching my first big online promotion?
BEN: That’s a great question.
First, I’ll give you the good news.
Then, I’ll give you some MORE good news : )
First things first…
This will sound like copywriting “sacrilege” but testimonials aren’t always as “life-or-death” important as some people say.
In fact, if you take a look around, you’ll notice many of the online Agora ads have NO testimonials.
Neither did a lot of Gary Halbert ads, for that matter.
Heck, I have written successful ads for new products without any testimonials… and once even had a case where testimonials HURT response.
So don’t worry about the testimonials thing.
If you have them, then definitely use them.
But don’t let a lack of testimonials stop you from going forward.
So that’s the first piece of good news.
Here’s the second piece:
There is something you can do that, in many cases, is MORE powerful than testimonials, anyway.
Something simple and easy… that almost NOBODY is doing.
And that is to “borrow” the credibility of newspapers, radio stations and television shows for your ads and products by using a press release to get free publicity.
Specifically, offline publicity — REAL newspapers, radio stations, tv stations, magazines, etc.
Not only can you say you were written up about in XYZ newspaper or radio station, but you can USE copies of your media interviews (whether text, audio or video) right on your sales pages.
It’s probably the best way to get “instant credibility” ever invented.
Your competition cannot easily duplicate it.
It makes it MUCH easier for people to trust you.
And you automatically get a special kind of prestige and credibility no “sales letter” can possibly give.
But here’s the thing:
There’s a LOT of misinformation about getting publicity circulating around the Internet.
Some of the stuff I see on the subject can actually get you blacklisted by the media people — where they tell each other to avoid you like the plague.
For a detailed audio lesson on how to write press release, check out the CD that comes with my Copywriting Grab Bag book, at:
In this CD I break down writing a press release line-by-line, and show you how to properly USE it.
Ben
